Before there was Google Maps, GPS technology or satellite imagery, a group of men, took on the task of drawing up maps for the municipal limits of early 20th century Hyderabad city. The survey which was done using trigonometric methods with reference to Global Telecommunication System(GTS) points was started in 1912 after the city of Hyderabad was witness to floods that destroyed the city and claimed over 15000 lives, and took over three years to complete. The swollen river rose forth and flowed through the city, leaving areas like Afzal Gunj and Mahbub Gunj, which lie just north of the Musi, submerged. Met with the task of rebuilding the city, the government of then Nizam, Mir Osman Ali, did two things; one, set up the City Improvement Board (CIB, now known as the Andhra Pradesh Housing Board) and two, started a municipal survey of the city which would form the basis of the CIB’s plans. This year marks the centenary of these maps whose every contour tells fascinating stories of the city.
The maps now belong in the personal collection of former architect and town planner of HUDA, S. P. Shorey according to whom it was the first detailed survey of Hyderabad. “It was a very detailed mapping in the scale of 50 feet to an inch (nearly 1 by 5000 scale) showing each and every building that existed then,” he informs. The maps are beautiful in their precision; as documents of the pasts, the maps are show us the Hyderabad that was - one with gardens, bungalows, water tanks and large open maidans. As town planning officer of the city, the maps were useful to Shorey.
“You know from the map how far the Musi waters reached, where was the zoo or the GPO? What were the contours of the city and many more things.” he says.
Geotagged and compared with a present day image from Google Earth, you can see that some areas like the Sultan Bazaar road, along with the Badi Chowdi junction has remained the same while open areas like Goshamahal have gotten smaller. You will see that Lal Bahadur Shastri cricket ground used to be called Fateh Maidan and that Somajiguda Tank, off Raj Bhavan road, now houses Hotel Inner Circle.
Reason to celebrate
Anant Maringanti of Hyderabad Urban Lab feels these maps should be recognised for what they are: valuable resources and an object of pride. “It is essential to have some interest and sense of pride for knowledge about the city. If we can learn to respect these resources,” he says, referring also the survey done by Prof. Manzoor Alam in the Sixties and the study on nalas done by Kirloskar Consultants in 2006, “we can rebuild a sense of coherence on the city that has become so fragmented that people think Cyberabad is the only area worth knowing about. Given the historical significance of the CIB and these maps, we should celebrate these centenary years. None of the government agencies are interested in doing that.”
The government’s attitude towards maps or any historical data is evident from a visit to the State Archives of Andhra Pradesh, Tarnaka where reams of maps, some more than 150 years old lie in a discarded state owing to the lack of funds and expertise required to maintain them. Apart from being objects of aesthetic value and a basis for planning, resources like the Leonard Munn maps hold great possibilities for research on local histories and urban change that will help us form a better understanding of the city as it stands today.
S. P. Shorey and Anant Maringanti will be speaking about the Leonard Munn maps at a symposium held on January 11, 3:00 p.m. at Kalakriti Art Gallery, where the maps will be on display the following week. Those interested in doing their share of digging can find the maps at MIT’s digital library website.
